Means of sediment-drainage



BEN F. FOWLER, 0F MIDIAN, KANSAS.

MEANS 0F SEDIMENT-DRAINAGE;

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 20, 1920.

Application led Itlarch 24, 199. Serial No. 284,864.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, BEN F. FOWLER, a citizen of the United States, and aresident of Midian, in the county of Butler and State of Kansas, haveinvented certain new and useful improvements in Means of Sediment@Drainage, of which the following is a description, referring to thedrawings, which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to means for separating sediment and water fromcrude oil in storage tanks, and the object of the invention is toprovide means by which this may be elfected quickly and without removingthe oil from the tank.

As is well known crude oil contains a considerable quantity of foreignmaterial of higher gravity than the oil. This falls as sediment in thetanks and reaches a depth of two feet or more thus reducing the capacityof the tank, and by agitation tends to mix again with the oil. Moreovercrude oil usually contains water, the presence of which in the tank .isvery undesirable.

My invention consists in providing a series of troughs upon the bottomof a tank, and at the bottom of each trough, means for discharging waterand sediment to the outside of the tank, and it further consists in thevalve device and details of construction hereinafter noted.

ln order that my invention may be better understood, reference will nowbe made to the a companying drawings, in which- Figure l is a sectionalplan view of the tank provided with the preferred structure of theinvention, a portion of the trough structure and portions of the valvesleeves being broken away. Fig. 2 is an elevation of the upper part ofthe tank. F ig. 3 is a vertical section, taken on line,3*3 of Fig.l,showing oil and sediment. Fig. e is a sectional detail of two of thedischarge pipes and the intermediate inclines or trough walls. F ig. 5is a sectional detail showing one of the stuffing boXes.

A is the tank which may be of any preferred shape and of any suitablematerial, it comprises the staves 1 and a fiat bottom 3, which bottom isof any usual construction.

Upon each half of the bottom 3 is laid a series of V shaped troughs 4Lwhich extend from the wall of the tank to the central line of the tank.As shown, each trough wall is made of two boards or plates e which arefastened to end pieces 5, their upper edge being secured to a centerstrip 6. The lower edges of the walls 4.- rest upon valve sleeves 7,which are laid upon or close to the bottom of the tank. E Ich sleeve 7passes out through the wall of the tank` and has a threaded end portion7', to receive an inside nut 8 and an exterior stuiiing box 9; in whichl0 is the packing. Eah sleeve 7 is thus held against rotation andleakage pre vented.

The inner end of each sleeve 7 is closed by a cap il. Each sleeve isprovided with a row of upwardly opening ports l2.

.lotatably mounted in each of said sleeves is a pipe or tube i3, whichis provided with a series of ports l2. The pipes 13 pass out from thetank through the stufling boxes 9 and may he provided with cut offvalves l5 which also serve as handles by which the pipes may be turned.

Referring again to Fig. l it will be noted that the inner ends of thelonger troughs 4, above described, are downwardly inclined as shown at16; the object of this being to form a diametrical trough at rightangles to said troughs el. rlie diametrically arranged trough formed bythe inclined ends l of the troughs 4t is provided with two vent pipesl?, each of which is inclosed in its non-rotatable sleeve i8, as shownat the left (Fig. l) having the ports 19.

ln addition to the principal troughs which have been described, l haveshown in Fig. l a number of shorter troughs, 2O and 21, which cover thebottom space not served by the longer troughs. Some of these shorttroughs are parallel to troughs d, while others are at right anglesthereto. Q2 indicates the sleeves at the bottom of the short troughs 20;23, the sleeve ports; 24, the outlet pipes thereof. 25 indicates thesleeves associated with short troughs 2l; 26 the sleeve ports, and 2?,the outlet pipes thereof.

The mode of operating the valves will be obvious. Normally of course,all the pipes 13, 17, etc., are so turned that the sleeve ports 12, i9,etc., are Closed, as shown at the left in Fig. 4. lVhen it is desired todrain out the water and sediment, the pipes 13, 17. etc., are turneduntil the valve ports register, as shown at the right, Fig. 4. and theoutside valves l5 are opened. The sediment and water will flow outthrough the pipes. and at the proper time the valves l5 are ('losed landthe pipes turned baok to hold the de posits out of the pipes until timefor the neXt draining operation.

Having described my invention, l claim and desire to secure by LettersPatent:

In a tank adapted to contain crude oil, sediment and water incombination, means for separating and removing said sediment and Waterfrom sueh combination comprising a plurality of V-shaped troughssupported from the tank bottom and Within which troughs said sedimentand Water are adapted to collect; a plurality of sleeves restingon thebottom of said tank, each sleeve registering with and supportingthe baseof one of said troughs; earch of said sleeves extendingtlirOugh aAstufiing boX in the Wall of said tank, a plurality of ports in eachsleeve upwardly opening to connect With its supen posed trough, a piperotatably arranged Within said sleeve and stuiiing box, ports in saidpipe adapted to register' with the ports in said sleeve and a valve onsaid pipe Without the tank; the pipes Within the sleeves being normallypositioned so that the pipe and sleeve ports do not register but whensaid pipes are rotated to occasion port registration and said valve isopened to alloivfor drainage of said sediment and Water Without thetank.

BEN F. FOl/VLER. Witnesses:

K. M. IMBoDnN, N. D. WiLBUR.

